To say that 2020 has been an unusual year would be a drastic understatement. Everyone has been affected by #COVID-19. We have a seen a huge shift to employees working #remote. The debate that was going on before the pandemic concerning whether employees should, or shouldn’t, be allowed to work remotely has been involuntarily forced to “they should”.
In-person meetings that required getting an #Uber, going to the airport, boarding a plane, getting another Uber, staying in a hotel, holding the meeting, and reversing through the process to get back home has been shown to be unneeded expenses of money and, more importantly, time. However, a side effect of being able to use technology and hold meetings without travel being involved is the stress and anxiety of back-to-back meetings, sometimes with little, or no, breaks between them. The stress and anxiety of the spouse, kids, and animals in the background because we don’t want to appear unprofessional.
Some people, like professional trainers, are feeling #stressed about conducting video training. The biggest complaints being the loss of personal interaction between sessions and the lack of ability to read body language with multiple people on the screen, which sometimes resembles a scene from the Muppet Show! This feeds their fear and anxiety of not being able to perform well and getting the desired results for their clients.
One of the side effects of working remote and schools being closed is that parents have had to take on the additional role of “Teacher”. As sexy as some might think working remote is/was, having to combine it with making sure the kids are being educated is like expecting your spouse to arrive in bed in sexy sleepwear and they show up in flannel pajamas with feet! I know this because I do 90% of my work by video call from my home office and, since March, my wife and son have been working/schooling from home, as well. My wife had wanted to work from home for quite some time and had been doing so two days per week. It was great for her…until our son was also at home and had to be schooled! There has been a lot of added stress, especially since the school systems were/are still trying to figure out what they were doing as they went along! Working remote doesn’t have the same attraction for her as it used to.
Because of what I mentioned above, and many more reasons, there has been a plethora of articles and posts about #anxiety, #burnout, #change, #stress, etc. and what people are doing to deal with those, or not.
What Smart Companies are Doing
A hotel that I’ve been to for several events has taken the time while they have low occupancy to redecorate. The plans had been in the works for a while and the pandemic gave them the opportunity to redecorate without interfering with guest experiences. Great way of turning a challenge into an opportunity!
One of my colleagues shared with me that several of their clients are using this downtime to reevaluate their sales strategy. The pandemic has revealed weaknesses in their sales strategies and they now have the time to fix those weaknesses. Since we’re here in the pandemic anyway, what a great way to seize opportunities for improvement!
Others have found that they can put technology to work for them. Prior to the pandemic, they didn’t think they could disrupt the way they had been doing things out of fear of losing ground to their competitors. The pandemic not only forced them into using technology to a greater degree, their clients are demanding it!
Executives have been put to the test as to their ability to lead in difficult times. (See my 21-minute video, From Burnout to Breakthrough) Like sales strategies, leaders have had their weaknesses exposed, which means either the companies who these executives are part of, or the executives themselves, are searching for solutions for those weaknesses.
Time and Expense
The most valuable thing you can give to others is your time. Unlike money, time can never be replaced. So, if you are considering fixing the weak spots in your sales and leadership teams in order to reduce anxiety, burnout, and change, it’s more important to fully consider the time commitment than the financial because the time investment will heavily outweigh the initial cost.
How long does it take to get a low, or mediocre, performer in sales to become top performer? From what I found in my research, somewhere between 12 – 15 months.
12 – 15 months of less than optimal sales performance. And that’s assuming that sales is just a skill that can be learned. That assumes that they have the proper level of confidence, the ability to build relationships, to easily let go of rejection, the internal drive to prospect, and so many additional challenges that take place in their minds that separate the poor performers from the top performers. Learning a 5-step sales process is easy. Executing it in a way that wins business comes from the inside, from mindset. And, how do you teach mindset?
What about leadership? How long does it take for a person to become top performing leader? This could be where we debate whether great leaders are born or made. There are companies that teach leadership skills, as well as many colleges and universities. But, like sales, only so much is skill-set. When you examine those we consider as great leaders from the past and currently, you rarely see mentioned some skill they excel at. It’s usually a belief system, a mindset. It’s like public speaking; anyone can get in front of an audience and read off a PowerPoint. It’s a special person who delivers the information in such a way that the audience is inspired! Anyone can follow what a book or a course on leadership says to do. But, it takes a person with the mindset and heart of a true leader to breathe life into the learnings.
So, how long does it take to teach a person to become a top performing leader? From a traditional training standpoint, I can’t answer that, nor do I think anyone else can, because it takes a powerful internal shift to cause a person to have the belief system and mindset to have top-performing leadership abilities.
Anxiety, Burnout, and Change
I never like to bring up problems without having a solution. You see, while you and others may be experiencing stress, anxiety, burnout, and more because of the pandemic and trying to address all of the changes you may have discovered in your sales and leadership teams quickly so as to come out on the other side ahead of the competition, time and money can be saved in spite of the traditional methods.
How long does it take to bring a low-performing salesperson to being in the top 10%? How long does it take to have an executive become a top-performing leader? Using my methods, about 30 days. If a more intense transformation is desired, then about 60 days. These are massive mind shifts that are immediately measurable in change of thinking and behavior.
Want to learn more? Call me at 972.900.9207, email me at ed@trans-think,com, or reach out to me here or on LinkedIn.